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Examples Of Okonkwo In Things Fall Apart

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Within the novel “Things Fall Apart,” the author, Chinua Achebe, explained how a warrior named Okonkwo was a victim of himself. Okonkwo was a victim of tragic events that surrounded his life. These events eventually lead him to his fate. Okonkwo had a father who was weak, and he was a failure in the eyes of the men of the village, Umuofia. Okonkwo’s worst fear was to be the kind of man his father was, so he tried his best not to let his fear become a reality. With a father like Unoka, Okonkwo didn’t get the start as most young men in the village; however, he worked his way to the position of leadership of the clan. There was only one emotion that Okonkwo showed, and it was anger. This was his only emotion because it was how he expressed his feelings. Okonkwo had to leave his fatherland, but after returning home, he found his home unrecognizable. Okonkwo wanted to get revenge against the white man for imprisoning him and the other leaders, but no one in the clan supported his …show more content…

“Unoka, for that was his father’s name, in his day he was lazy and improvident” (Achebe 4). If Unoka got any kind of cowries as payment, he spent it all on palm-wine. He didn’t spent a dime to feed his family. The reason Unoka was a failure was due to the fact that he didn’t bother to prep his garden for yams to grow. Consequently, he was a debtor who owed lots of cowries to many men. “After the death of Unoka, Okonkwo was ashamed to be the son of his father, because in his father’s lifetime, he didn’t take a title or even make a name for himself” (Achebe 8). Yet, the clan didn’t judge a man on the worth of his father, they judged a man’s worth according to his own actions. Unlike his father, Okonkwo was a wealthy farmer who had taken two titles in Umuofia. Furthermore, he had shown incredible prowess as a strong warrior. Though Okonkwo was on the path to greatness, he still feared ending up like his

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